Bright Star in the Big Sky

You may have heard that the state of Montana is often referred to as the Big Sky state. After traveling through Montana last week, I will say that that is a great way to describe this beautiful state with such wide open horizons.

The title of the book, Bright Star in the Big Sky, refers to Montana's congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin. She became the first woman elected to the United States Congress! At the time that Ms. Rankin was elected to congress, only a few states allowed women to vote. Before Ms. Rankin was elected as a representative for Montana, she used her skills as an organizer working towards the suffrage amendment (giving women the right to vote). Four years after speaking before the Montana legislature and traveling around the state, women in Montana were granted the right to vote in 1914. But finally in 1919, the 19th Amendment passed—giving all women in the U.S. the right to vote, and she was the only woman to vote for it. Besides working for women's suffrage, she was committed to helping the poor, ensuring the rights of women and children, focusing on issues of peace and laws against child labor.

I am glad we stopped at the Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center in Missoula, because this short book by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien was very interesting and I learned a lot about a Bright Star, one of America's most significant women in history.